Planning For Adaptation
A new survey looks at information for climate change adaptation
See below for some responses so far.
Researchers are working hard to find out more about the complex interactions between a warming atmosphere and expected climate changes over the coming decades. The impacts on the landscape, on flowering times for plants, inshore fish populations and urban systems will all affect one another. While this information is essential to develop a new understanding of expected climate impacts it is not necessarily useful in making business and policy decisions today.
How any two pieces of information are interpreted together, and the action taken, will change to suit the individual. Information needs can depend on business aims and strategies, asset and risk management practices and other factors like local population projections and solutions to a low carbon economy. Better understanding the needs of information users for planning and policy decisions allows us to deliver new research results in more useful formats.
The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) is leading the research community in a national interdisciplinary effort to generate the information needed by decision-makers in government and in vulnerable sectors and communities to manage the risks of climate change impacts. Below we pose five basic questions to open up the conversation on user needs in your sector.
This short survey was launched at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Conference in August 2011.
What information will you use to plan for climate change adaptation?:
- If you were making plans that consider future climate impacts, where would you look for information today?
- If you were looking for climate change adaptation information, what kind of information would be important?
- Where have you found information on climate change impacts and solutions in the past?
- What, if any, changes have you considered in your work to account for a changing climate?
- What sector do you work in?
If you would like to comment please email:
Liese Coulter
Knowledge Communication Manager
National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
Email: l.coulter AT griffith.edu.au Telephone: 07 5552 7735
Click here if you would like to complete the survey online, or download a pdf of the survey here.
Survey Responses
Here are some of the findings from our first survey conducted at the AILA conference.
- Most people look to the web first for climate adaptation information although some use in-house experts
- Peak bodies are important information providers and information directors
- Climate adaptation information needs tends to be project specific but case studies, successful examples and local information are valuable.
- Including information on how the climate will change is relatively new in design projects.
Some comments on how people are using climate change information in their work:
“Water sensitivity is a priority in my design work, and providing havens/space for native flora and fauna is also critical”
“Planning for materials that are long lasting, robust and consider whole life cycles”
“Implementing energy saving but not adaptation”
“Changing materials as well as design philosophy”
